"The National Team" book club

Caitlin Murray (a freelance journalist covering soccer) has a new book out titled "The National Team: The Inside Story of the Women Who Changed Soccer." It is not what I thought it was going to be; it is better. It's not just a history of the team and the dominance on the field, like the book "The Girls of Summer." As a longtime fan of the team, I thought it was going to be mostly stuff I already knew. And while it did have some rehashing of the team's history, it also had quite a bit I had never heard before. (And for newer fans, the history of the team during the early and mid 90s as well as the dark years of the mid-2000s is also helpful to give context.)

The book focuses more on the off-the-field struggles of the team throughout the years than just on the history of what happened on the field although it does have some of the actual soccer stories as well. It has info on bonuses and pay throughout the team's history. It has more info that I have previously seen reported anywhere on various CBA negotiations over the years; it includes more information on the current CBA and its terms than I've seen reported anywhere else, which I'll put in the lawsuit/CBA thread. The book also has some info on what happened with the various coaches' resignations/firings over the years. It's based on a lot of interviews and primarily focuses on what happened in the locker room and in the board room than on the field.

It does have a small number of typos and is obviously written with some bias (but what isn't?). I also thought the number of thoughts/quotes by players who refused to go on record was too high. But it overall is well-researched and is worth the read. Anybody else read it yet? What were your thoughts?

 

Also on the topic of books, Kristine Lilly has one on teamwork coming out soon before the WWC: https://the18.com/soccer-news/kristine-lilly-one-on-one-interview